Repurposing outdated or odd items around your home
By Morgan Hannah, Life & Style Editor
Life is a wild and messy ride that oftentimes gets difficult, leaving us feeling unprepared and overwhelmed. Sometimes we can’t find the right cable in a pinch, sometimes we’ve lost our cheese from within our sandwiches, and sometimes we just need a good laugh at a silly yet useful tip.
We also seem to always have a lot of outdated or odd items lying around that might otherwise not be very useful. However, I’d like to introduce to you to a way to hit two birds with one stone: a variety of funny little life hacks that just might make your life easier, or at the very least, they’ll definitely provide you with a good laugh.
Using binder clips to organize cables
Binder clips are not very good for holding just a few documents together—they are used to secure stacks of documents instead. It’s not uncommon to find more of these than you’d ever need lying around.
So, why not put them to use and clip them to
the edge of your desk, making sure to have the handle pulled back so as hold
your cables—such as a USB, HDMI, or phone charger. Have an instantly organized
office space that never requires you to spend more time than is necessary
searching for the laptop charging cable or any other cable ever again!
CD spindle bagel carrier
Having a fresh and held together bagel sandwich can sometimes be a difficult feat. Especially when you’re in a rush in the morning. Especially if you’re attempting to be more environmentally friendly and wish not to use plastic or paper bags.
Why not try using an old CD spindle? It’s not like it’s getting used for its original purpose anymore. And it just so happens to be the right size for a bagel! Keep your bagel from falling apart while maintaining its freshness using a washable, reusable CD spindle. Also, depending on the size of the CD spindle in question, it could just be used as a breadbasket of sorts for bagels to keep them fresh and organized.
Ketchup bottle pancakes
Great for those busy mornings, mix up some pancake batter and pour it into an empty, cleaned ketchup bottle for a clean, easy, breezy, squeeze-y experience!
This hack is super easy and super convenient! Pancake mix can be made and stored in a ketchup bottle in advance, too, making mornings even quicker.
How to fill a container too big for the sink?
You could just use the bathroom tub. But if you don’t have access to a tub, or you want to make life a little more interesting, try using a clean dustpan!
Simply place the dustpan in the sink with the handle hanging off the edge of the sink, then place the container directly under the handle, and lastly, turn on the sink and watch your creation act like a mismatched linen closet water feature! It gets the job done and gives you a good giggle in the process.
Vertical clothes
Put away your clothes vertically to be able to see and have access to them all, rather than having every t-shirt and pair of pants sit stacked on top of each other, making it more difficult to gage what outfits you’ve got.
Additionally, this hack opens up more space in each drawer of your dresser so you can store more clothes. Also, a great travel hack—pack your clothes vertically in your backpack or travel bag.
Homemade dripless sponge icepack
This one is as simple as it sounds. A frozen, saturated sponge in a sponge-sized bag makes a great ice pack that doesn’t drip everywhere as it thaws. Also, depending on sponge size, this ice pack is far more portable than your typical one!
Grocery helper
I’ve saved the best life hack for last. If you or someone you love lives on any floor but the first floor of an apartment building, grocery day is always daunting.
But no longer will carrying six or more sacks of food be troublesome with the use of a big carabiner! It is a metal loop that opens on one side—you’ll know it when you see it. Just look the handles of your grocery bags onto the carabiner and use that bad boy as a handle to old those bags. This makes for fewer trips and fewer dropped sacks.
